The present invention relates to devices for removing the extreme outer portion of the rind from citrus fruits. Devices capable of removing the entire outer covering or skin from various edible vegetables and fruits have been known for some time. Examples of such devices include the vegetable peeler or scraper disclosed by Milhado U.S. Pat. No. 902,428 and the kitchen tool and utensil disclosed by Buedingen U.S. Pat. No. 2,601,087, as well as various other scraping and paring devices known to those familiar with the culinary arts and readily available in the housewares sections of most department stores. Generally these known devices comprise one or more operative elements and means for either moving a particular element over the item being peeled or for holding the element stationary while the item is rubbed across the element. The working surfaces of the elements usually include a plurality of pointed protrusions or bladed apertures formed therein to scrape or pare the skin from the surface of the vegetable or fruit being worked. Other protrusions or apertures are often included for shredding or grating the vegetable or fruit into large or small particles respectively.
The principal disadvantage of known prior art devices is that, because their peeling, shredding or grating means protrude a substantial distance from a flat working surface, they are not suitable for gratingly removing only the extreme outer oil-bearing portion of the rind from citrus fruits, such as oranges, lemons and limes, without also at the same time removing the less desirable white inner skin lying thereunder. The problems attendant with grating only the oil-bearing outer portion of the relatively thick rind of citrus fruits are wholly different from the problems attendant with removing the entire relatively thin skins from other vegetables and fruits such as carrots, potatoes, apples and the like, and with shredding or grating such vegetables and fruits. Usually the skins of the latter group of vegetable and fruits are removed to prepare the vegetable or fruit for cooking or eating and, as the skin is to be discarded, it is not particularly important how deeply the peeling device penetrates into the body of the vegetable or fruit as long as it removes the entire skin. Moreover, for the same reason, it is not important how the skin is removed, i.e. in strips, chunks or lumps. Further, when shredding or grating such vegetables and fruits, as it is the body rather than the skin that is to be operated upon, and it is again not particularly important how deeply the device penetrates as long as the material is removed in the desired size of particles. For example, carrots, cabbages, potatoes, etc. may be shredded or grated to any required depth merely by repeating the shredding or grating process until the desired volume of particulate matter has been accumulated. There is no need for selectivity in the manner in which material is removed from the particular vegetable or fruit.
When gratingly removing the oil-bearing outer portion of the rind from citrus fruit, however, it is the grated rind itself that is to be saved and used, and if the rind-removing device is permitted to penetrate too deep below the surface of the fruit it will remove not only the oil-bearing outer surface of the rind but a substantial amount of the white inner skin material lying below the rind as well. This additional material from deep within the body of the rind has a taste substantially different and less appetizing than that of the oil-bearing portion of the rind and its concurrent removal and mixing with the outer surface of the rind produces a mixture that is less desirable as a culinary additive. Furthermore, to be usable as a flavoring agent, the oil-bearing portion of the rind must be removed in a grated or fine particle form and, if the rind is removed in large strips or chunks, it must subsequently be reduced in size to a grated form before being used so as to avoid harsh flavor concentrations.
An additional disadvantage of known paring- or shredding-type devices is the great difficulty encountered when trying to remove the thin outer skin of a substantially ellipsoid object such as a lemon or lime by scraping that object across a flat surface. Inevitably, not only is the skin removed in patches, but a significant portion of the white inner skin is removed as well. Moreover, it is very easy for the hands of the user to contact and be injured by the bladed apertures of the grater surface as the vegetable or fruit is moved. As a result, many persons choose to omit citrus rind from their recipes rather than be forced to use an impure mixture of rind and white inner skin and expose their hands to possible scraping or cutting besides.